Wax Paper Resist #1

A few weeks ago I tried a very old technique that Gina K recently did a video on. I ended up with eight panels. Here is the first card I'm sharing with one of those panels. For these cards, I used a background stencil from Gina K. I cut the oval out of the panel with a Nestabilities die. I used the negative space for this first card, and the oval for the second card. I added a matting piece on this first card. The flowers and leaves are from a set from the most recent Gina K kit. I used the stamps, stencils and dies from the kit. The sentiment is from Gina K, too. I think I'll add a little more color to the flowers - there isn't enough contrast between the light and dark areas. The flowers and sentiment are popped up on foam squares.

I used a scalloped Nestabilities die for the matting of the oval. I used a different Gina K set for the flower and sentiment on this card. I embossed the background with a woodgrain folder. I colored the flowers and leaves with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I didn't bring any Copics with me on my retreat, so I used Prismacolor pencils for all of my coloring when I didn't have coordinating stencils.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Unicorn Wishes

I got a beautiful Mother's Day card from a friend, reminding me of a long-forgotten technique - markers on rubber stamps, spritz with water and stamp. So pretty!! So, I did some digging through some of my thousands of wood-mounted stamps and picked out some flowers for that technique. But, I also came across other stamps that begged to be used. One was this unicorn stamp from Stampin' Up! I was looking for some whimsical, fantastical or other appropriate patterned paper and came up with these. The sentiment stamps are from Gina K. I cut out the unicorns and mats with Nestabilities.

The unicorns on this paper are silver metallic.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Glittery Christmas Greetings

Also included in Gina K's 12 Days of Christmas box were three small bottles of glitter - gold, silver and clear. I used a brass stencil and some double-sided sticky paper to add gold glitter through the stencil and then removed the stencil and added the clear glitter. I matted with gold mirror cardstock. I had already used a die to embossed the rectangle on the panel. The sentiment is from Gina K.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

"Topper" Baby Card

This is a simple "topper" card - the cardbase is totally folded across the top of the patterned paper and the circle is placed so it sticks up above the top. I had the circle on my table and found a die that would cut a piece to fit on the circle. Then I used a Nestability die to cut the scalloped matting. I added the white dots on the scallops and decorated the teddy bear with dots and plaid. I added stickers for his eyes and drew in the mouth and nose. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado, and I also added some enamel dots and embossed the white circle.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

More "Tile" Stickers

Well, I did it - I used up all 35 of the tile stickers that I got. Here are the rest of the cards. Some are very similar, but no two are the same.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Watercolor Tulip

I woke up really, really early last Sunday and went to play in my stamping room. For some reason, I went for my watercolors. Not very smart, though, that I didn't use watercolor paper, but instead used mixed media paper. Oh well. Maybe next time! At any rate, I played around a little bit with leaves, then decided to add a flower. Then I decided to make it into a card instead of tossing it in the trash. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things. I used Nestabilities for the ovals. The background paper is from Die Cuts With a View.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Thinking of You in Pink

This is a real "Gina K" card. The flower and leaves were made from a Gina K set I got from my friend, but they came with the set - already done. :-) The flower is mounted on foam squares. I used Nestability dies for the ovals. The sentiment stamp is also from Gina K. The background is from my new cardstock matstack from Michael's.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Thinking of You Flowers

Another "throwback" card. A picture of one like this appeared on our Echo Show and I thought I needed to make another one. The watering can stamp is a very old one from Stampin' Up! I colored it with Copics, then I cut it, and the matting layer, with Nestabilities. I popped the panel up with foam squares. The sentiment is from Gina K.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Watercolor Hello Friend

And one more card with my hand-drawn flowers. Once again I used my Zig Real Color Brush markers. The sentiment is from Gina K. I used a piece of gingham paper from my stash. I embossed the blue strip with a Darice folder and rubbed some white ink on it. The sentiment/flower panel is mounted on foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Sympathy Times Five

I had five more of these stamped "With heartfelt Sympathy" sentiments that I had pulled from my card parts, so I made these five cards. Two for me, two for our church, and one for the thrift store. I cut each of the sentiment pieces with Nestability dies. The stamped and die-cut images are all from Gina K. The flowers are mounted on foam squares.  The background was embossed with a Darice folder.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

First Communion

Our middle grandchild took his first communion yesterday and this is the card that I made for him. I used an old Stampin' Up! set and embossed the image and sentiments with gold powder. I cut out the cross and mounted it, and the top sentiment, on foam squares. The ovals were cut with Nestabilities. The base and layers are ivory.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Enjoy Your Day

Three more images from the set I've been using from Gina K. There is a lot of sparkle in this card that you probably can't see - the purple mattings are glitter cardstock and the candles have Wink of Stella.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Warm and Cozy Hug

Again, this card is made using stamped, colored and die-cut pieces from Gina K's set called "Hygge Time." The nearest cup is mounted on foam squares. I was pretty lucky as I put these cards together. I had colored all of the images and then looked for patterned paper to match. Sometimes I strike out doing it that way, but I had papers to match all of my images this time. The sentiment is from the set, also, and is matted and mounted on foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Simple Heart Thank You

The die that I used a few days ago for the baby card also had this heart and flower on it. (It was one three x three inch or so Cuttlebug thinlet-ish plate.) I colored them and used them on this card. I used dies for the circles, too. I added Stickles to the flower center and popped up the circle panel. I added a matted strip of patterned paper to the left side.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

One Stamp Set - Three Cards

I finally took some time to start working on some unused stamp sets that I've had for quite a while now. I think they are all from Gina K, but I'll let you know as I use them. The stamp set that I used on these three cards is from Gina K. I made three fairly different cards with the same set.

For this first one, I use Gina's Wreath Builder. I added some Pearl Pen drops to the flower centers. The sentiment panel was cut with Nestabilities and is popped up on foam squares.

I had a piece of cardstock with a circle cut out of it that I used as a stencil for the panel on this card. It has a very finely scalloped edge. I ink-blended through the circle, then stamped the flower and leaves and sentiment in black. I added an embossed strip of white glitter paper to the bottom and also a double scored line above that. I also added a few Gina K black sequins.

Just all simple stamping on this one. I added the panel at an angle. Again, the sentiment is cut with Nestabilities and I added more of the black sequins.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Have a Great Day!

This embossed and cut-out oval was in the card parts that I really wanted to get used up. I think (once again!) that all of my parts are either used or up filed neatly away in a binder. Yippee! I used a Nestability to cut the scalloped oval mat out of metallic purple cardstock. I stamped the sentiment on the oval. The flower is a really old shimmery, white flower from the wedding section of Michael's that I colored with a marker. I used a punch (EK Success) to cut the leafy sprigs. I also used a marker to color the butterfly stamped in the sentiment. I added a teeny, tiny button to the flower center. I used a die plate for the top of the panel and a Darice embossing folder for the bottom of the panel, and I added two scored lines between the top and bottom. Kind of retro!

I asked for Waffle Flower's rectangular layer dies for Christmas, and then I bought the in-between set after Christmas. I haven't used them a ton, but I do really love them and I hope I get in the habit of using them instead of my paper cutter.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Oops - Four More Christmas Cards - and Two "Bonus" Cards!

I really thought it would be awhile before I posted any more Christmas cards - but here I am, with four more. After my friend, Vicki, did this blog post, it just called to me - as did my Christmas papers. I die-cut the white circles with Penny Black dies (thanks, Darnell!) and the matting circles with Nestabilities. The sentiment panels are popped up on foam squares. 

And here are the two "bonus" cards I promised you. I post nearly every card that I make, so I felt I should share these, also, even though they are nearly identical to yesterday's card and didn't deserve their own post. The main pieces were already done and I got them with the die from Darnell. I ink-blended color on a circle to place them on. I added the sentiment across the middle. I used a die plate to make the background.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

With Sympathy Two-Fer

A friend was over a few weeks ago and bought several of my cards. So, now I need to replenish my sympathy cards. The patterned paper on both of these cards came from a very small pack of 4 x 4 inch papers I got from a stamping friend in Des Moines a few years ago. I used oval Nestabilities on each of the cards. The matting on this first oval is mirror gold. I popped up the sentiment panel on foam squares. I also added gold mirror cardstock strips on each side of the patterned papers. The sentiment on both cards is from Hero Arts. I used gold embossing powder on this first one.

I placed the strips for this one on black cardstock. The sentiment is embossed with black powder. The flowers are ancients ones from Prima, and I added some small, reddish brads.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Color Swap - Pink and Green

Here is the card that I made for the Color Swap in my stamping group. The colors were pink and green. I already had the butterfly sitting on my table. I had die-cut it in black and then made a pink layer to back it with. I added a bit of darker pink ink around the outer edges. The black circle was on my table, too. I cut a white one to place on top of that and embossed it with a Darice embossing folder. I lightly rubbed some pink ink over the embossing. I stenciled the background with one of my new stencils. The sentiment is from a Maya Road set.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Pink and Purple Butterfly

This patterned paper oval (paper from The Paper Studio) has been sitting on my table for quite a while, too, and I was happy to use it up. No more parts on my table - at least for a little bit, anyway! I cut a mat for it using a Nestabilities die. I stenciled the background. I stamped the sentiment directly on the background, but managed to mess it up, so I had to stamp on a strip of white and add it over the messed-up stamping. I added color to the die-cut butterfly and popped up the wings with foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!